Breaking Down the New York Giants’ Situation at Safety

Safety first? According to both fans and media, one of the New York Giants’ biggest offseason needs was the safety position.

The Giants’ personnel department, as is often the case, saw things differently. Just as it was prepared to roll with the youth movement last year before a rash of injuries wiped out prospects Nat Berhe (calf), Mykkele Thompson (Achilles) and Bennett Jackson (knee), it’s prepared to do so again this year.

Will the plan work or are the Giants about to become the poster children for the old Albert Einstein theory that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results?

Let’s have a look.

 

2015 in Review

With the contracts of Stevie Brown and Antrel Rolle having expired, the Giants decided to go with the kids, a group that includes Berhe, Jackson, Thompson, Landon Collins and Cooper Taylor—all draft picks.

Whatever was in the water at the team headquarters last summer most certainly didn’t agree with the safeties, who fell faster than a roll of pennies dropped from atop the Empire State Building.

By the time training camp was over, only Collins and Taylor survived unscathed, although Collins did have an early camp scare with his knee.

The aforementioned injuries forced the Giants’ personnel department to jump headfirst into the bargain bin for veteran depth. On paper, the plan sounded good—except for one problem: When a veteran, even a former All-Pro like Brandon Meriweather, is still available late in the summer, that should raise all kinds of red flags.

Not in a position to be choosy, the Giants signed Meriweather to fill one spot. Later in the summer, they re-signed Stevie Brown after Houston waived him, but Brown’s stay was short-lived.

New York instead turned to veteran Craig Dahl, who had been with the Giants during defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s first tenure with the team.

While Collins finished second in run support with a 9.0 run-stop percentage among safeties who played at least 75 percent of their team’s snaps, the combination of Dahl, Meriweather, Taylor and Collins wasn’t very effective in coverage. Not one of those four finished with an NFL rating lower than 108.1 (Dahl posted the best rating of the group).

 

2016 Outlook: Where Can This Unit Improve?

The obvious starting point for this group would be to keep everyone healthy so that management doesn’t have to dig through the bargain bin to find outside help.

Otherwise, no one really knows what this young group—which now includes rookie draft pick Darian Thompson—is capable of doing in live action. Outside of Collins, of course.

“It’s difficult. It’s essentially their first year all over again,” head coach Ben McAdoo told reporters regarding what they have with the young safeties.

However, most of the youngsters do have one advantage in their corner, and that is a year in the system, which McAdoo is hoping will allow them to hit the ground running.

“They were able to get …

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